


Here Together

by mumblingmaria



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumblingmaria/pseuds/mumblingmaria
Summary: A collection of moments between Zeb and each member of the Ghost crew.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I just love Zeb a lot and I wanted to add some more love out there for the big guy. He deserve way more love.

Sabine.

Garel was hot that day. Or at least, the part of Garel that Zeb and Sabine were in was hot. Zeb had tried not to grumble as they made their way through the city’s streets. They had been all over the city, setting their latest distraction.

Kanan and Ezra were attempting to infiltrate the Imperial Academy, so the least amount of stormtroopers there, the better. Sabine and Zeb had spent the better part of the day placing small explosives on abandoned buildings to make a series of explosions to draw the Imperials out. Zeb didn’t like the legwork, but he was looking forward to watching the bucket heads run around the city. That was always enjoyable. 

Sabine had led them to the top of their final building and was now hanging off the side, Zeb holding her ankles. 

“Did you really have to pick that spot for a star bird?” Zeb asked leaning forward to look at the spray painting. 

“Zeb, hold still! You’ll make me mess up!” Sabine called up. The Lasat sighed and went back into position. “And I chose this spot because I want Imperials to be wondering just how it got there.”

“Yeah, I get that, but you aren’t the one holding someone off the side of a building,” he grumbled. He looked out across the city, trying to remember just where the Academy was. “When do you think Kanan and Ezra will signal us?”

“Soon, I hope. I want to see how well these explosions do,” the girl answered, shaking one of her canisters. She scrunched her face up before spraying the wall again. “I adjusted the formula in the bombs, I want to see how they turn out.”

“You know they’re going to be as beautiful as ever,” Zeb chuckled, shaking the girl slightly. Sabine threw a glare up at him and he grinned. 

“Well, they better hurry up,” she said firmly. She crossed her arms and looked at her work. She sighed. “We need a break.”

“From the mission? Uh, Sabine, it’s almost over,” he said. “Have you been hanging upside too long?”

“No, not from this mission, just in general!” Sabine said, laughing a bit. “We need a moment for us as a family to breathe. We’ve been on the move so much since we had to leave Lothal, I just think we could take a moment.”

Zeb looked down at the girl. She had begun painting again, adding the final touches to her work. He forgot how young she was. How young the whole crew was. This war had made all of them grow up far too quickly.

“Hey, you there!” Shouts from the street made Zeb look away from his hanging friend. Three stormtroopers, guns raised, had spotted them from the street below. “Stop what you’re doing and put your hands in the air!”

“Uh, sorry, but my hands are a little full right now,” Zeb called back down to them. 

Sabine reached up to her holsters and grabbed one of her blasters. She started shooting at the troopers as Zeb did he best to ensure she wasn't hit by their shots. 

Three more troopers appeared on the street and the girl groaned. “This isn’t fair! I can’t hold my other blaster!”

“Then drop the paint canister and grab it!” Zeb shouted. He swung the girl to the left to avoid her being hit. He really hoped this would be over soon; he was getting tired of being caught by surprise.

“I can’t drop this! What if it breaks?” Her voice sounded more scandalized he had ever heard it. 

“SABINE!”

Just as she dropped it and reached for her second blaster, the door to the roof opened behind Zeb and two more stormtroopers appeared, ready to join the fight.

“Karabast,” Zeb growled. “I hate bucket heads. Sabine! Hang on!”

“Hang on? Hang on to what?” Sabine yelled back. She then shrieked for a second as Zeb tossed her up in the air.

His timing perfect from their years of working together, Zeb managed to turn to face the stormtroopers behind him and dropped the roof’s floor, grabbing the girl’s wrist as she fell back down by his foot. 

Sabine let out a whoop in delight as they began firing at the soldiers again. 

Once they finally managed to take down the troopers attacking them, Zeb pulled the girl back up to the roof. They grinned at each other, proud of their work. 

“Did you get your painting done?” Zeb asked as they moved away from the edge. 

“Just barely,” she replied, putting her blasters away. She nudged one of the troopers with her foot and sighed. “I’m going to be so annoyed if the spray canister is broken.”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Zeb said, patting her back. She grinned up at him. They looked out over the city. The sun was starting to set finally. 

“ _Spectre Four and Spectre Five, you two ready?_ ” Kanan’s voice said over their comlinks. Sabine’s smile grew twice its size as she pulled out her detonator. 

“You bet, Spectre One,” Zeb answered. 

“ _Then light ‘em up._ ”

Sabine pressed the button on the detonator and five explosions around the city went off. Shades of blue and pink and purple flew through the sky and mixed with the orange or yellow of the sky. Zeb turned to look at the girl and tried to decide what was brighter: her work or her watching it. She was so much younger then he was when he joined the Honor Guard in Lasan. She was just a kid still. Just a kid fighting in a fight far too big for her. She was just trying to make the galaxy a more beautiful place.

“You know, a vacation, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Zeb said as they began making their way back to the ship. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they walked. “But I would miss this quality time we share together on missions.”

“Who says I can’t blow things up on vacation?”

Kanan.

Running through a Star Destroyer was not how Zeb thought his day was going to go. He also still wasn’t sure how he was involved in this crusade against the Empire. He made a sharp turn in the hall, making sure that the man running with him made the turn as well. Kanan looked behind them quickly before sprinting to catch up. A few paces down they stop, hearing movement up ahead.

They looked around, spotting a storage room. A quick glance between the two and they made their way inside to hide quickly.

Zeb wasn’t sure who regretted the decision first. More of a storage closet than a room, it left the both of them immediately cramped. Kanan tried to readjust but that pushed Zeb into a shelf behind him. They froze when it rattled.

“This mission is going great,” Zeb said in a hushed voice. “I’m really glad I agreed to it.”

“The day’s still young, things could start going our way,” Kanan answered, almost shrugging his shoulders. 

Zeb glared at Kanan and then turned his attention to the door. The sound of stormtroopers running through the hall was being masked by the sound of the alarm still ringing. A Star Destroyer being infiltrated by only two, yeah, the day could really turn in their favour.

They waited in silence. The sounds from the hall didn’t seem to be ending and Zeb was starting to wonder if the stormtroopers were ever going to find them. He just wanted to be put out of his misery at this point.

He felt a finger poke into his chest. 

“Zeb,” Kanan whispered, his head turned to the door as well, “talk to me, buddy. What’s on your mind?”

“It’s none of your business what’s on my mind,” he growled. Zeb shot another glare at Kanan. “What, are you using your Jedi mind tricks to read my mind?”

Kanan glared this time. That had been a low blow, but Zeb didn’t care. So what if Kanan had trusted him with that secret, Zeb never asked him too. “I don’t need ‘Jedi mind tricks’ to see that you’re stressed.”

“Of course I’m stressed, Kanan. We’re stuck in a closet waiting for an army to find us!” Zeb said. He could feel the anger in him rising. It was taking a lot control to keep from yelling. “This was a mistake.”

“Okay, I’ll admit it,” the other man said, sighing. “Maybe this mission wasn’t the smartest one to take on.”

“That’s not the mistake I’m talking about.”

Kanan turned to try and meet the Lasat’s eyes. Zeb, determined, kept his eyes glued to the door. The air around them was stale, which had to be why it was getting harder breathe. He hated that he was feeling guilty but it didn’t change the fact he felt that way. This was a mistake. 

“I shouldn’t have joined up with you and Hera and your wild crusade. This isn’t what I signed up for,” Zeb forced out. It would have been easier to just shut up and wait for death, but Kanan and Hera… He owed them at least a proper explanation. So if only Kanan heard it, only Kanan did. “I don’t want to die here.”

Zeb expected an immediate rebuttal, for the argument to begin. The explanation about how they wouldn’t die here and how this fight they were fighting was the right one. The good one. But nothing happened. The alarm continued to blare through the ship, stormtroopers ran past their hiding spot again. Kanan stood next to him, silent, letting the chaos around them surge.

Finally he spoke, “I know how you feel.” His voice was soft. Zeb looked back at him finally and found a man who looked almost defeated. This wasn’t the man who found him and helped him back on his feet. This wasn’t the man who charged into rooms filled with stormtroopers. This wasn’t what sprang to mind when the word Jedi was said. “I had my doubts when I joined up with Hera. I didn’t even join her in the mission at first—it took a long time for me to do that. You joined this faster than I did.”

Zeb doubted that. He saw how Kanan looked at Hera. Kanan was a man ready to die for the cause he believed it, for the people he loved.

And that’s why Zeb had joined them. He missed knowing he was helping those who needed help, the feeling of being a part of something bigger than him, feeling like he belonged somewhere again. He was confident that this was something he found in Hera and Kanan. Zeb shifted, trying to find or make some distance between him and Kanan.

“I understand your doubts. Once we’re back on the Ghost, if you want to leave, we’ll figure it out,” Kanan said, watching the Lasat man. Zeb finally met his eyes. “But I do truly believe that you can help us do a lot of good.”

He smiled and reached to grip Zeb’s shoulder. Sighing, Zeb gripped Kanan’s shoulder. “This mission is still a mistake.”

As if on cue, the sound of footsteps coming to a stop outside the storage closet seeped in. Both men groaned. 

Kanan pressed his comlink. “Hey, Spectre Two, we could do with a distraction right about now.”

“ _Coming, Spectre One. Though, I could really do with both of you telling me you completed the mission._ ”

Zeb laughed aloud, there was no use of them pretending they weren’t hiding. 

“Ready to bash some stormtrooper heads?” Kanan asked, pulling his blaster out.

“You bet,” Zeb answered, cracking his knuckles. “Bring on the buckets.”

Chopper.

Five hours. That’s how long Zeb was told the rest of the team would be. For five hours he was going to have sit in the Phantom and wait for everyone to get back. It wasn’t his fault his arm was broken on the last mission (well, not entirely his fault), why should he be punished? And it didn’t help Zeb’s mood that Chopper was his only company. He couldn’t even have a conversation in the five hours.

They were parked on the outskirts of Capital City. A routine op on the routine planet: steal from the Empire and bash some heads, a general good time. It was everything Zeb loved in a mission. 

Groaning, Zeb spun around in the pilot’s chair. He tried to not look at how long had past—the last time he had looked, only an hour had gone by.

“This is going to be so boring,” Zeb muttered to himself. “I’m going to die of boredom. Hera’ll come back to find my dead body.”

He glanced at the console in front of him in case of any changes and then began to spin in the chair again. Zeb let out a loud groan and slumped in the chair.

“Hey, Chopper!” he called at after a few minutes. A disgruntled ‘bwap’ came from outside, but no droid appeared. “C’mon, Chopper, get in here.”

The old droid rolled into the Phantom, grumbling the whole way. Chopper stopped in front of Zeb and rested his metal hands on the tops of his legs. 

“Can it,” the Lasat said. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t broken or something. Hera wouldn’t be impressed with me if I lost you somehow.”

“Bwaaaaah,” was the only response he was given. Zeb rolled his eyes as Chopper bumped into his legs.

“This is the gratitude I get for checking on you?” he demanded, lifting a foot in the air. He placed on top of the droid to try and push him away. The short mechanical arms began to flail violently. “Chopper!”

The droid stopped moving and the foot on his head lowered. Zeb turned back to the console and started drumming the fingers of his good arm on it. Chopper bumped into the back of the chair every now and then, occasionally moving back and forth through the Phantom. 

The fifth time Chopper ran into the chair, Zeb growled and turned around abruptly. The droid raised his hands, ready to fight. He let out a series of noises that Zeb could only assume were insults. “That’s it,” he shouted, jumping to his feet.

And so a tussle began between them. Chopper kept running into the Lasat’s legs and hitting his knees. Zeb tried to kick him but kept stumbling around the ship. Just as a blow was finally going to land on the droid, Zeb tripped on him and landed in the chair on his side with the broken.

“ARGH!” he shouted, clutching the arm. Zeb looked over at Chopper, ready to fight him off but the droid was backing away slowly. With a sad sounding ‘baaah’, he fled outside. “Good! Stay away from me!”

Hoisting himself properly into the chair, Zeb nursed his arm and went back to monitoring the ship and the scopes on it. He shifted in the seat trying to get comfortable (it was futile, the chair was not designed with him in mind). It was going to be a long time until the rest of the crew got back. A long time. 

Another hour passed and Zeb turned to look outside the Phantom. Chopper hadn’t made a noise since leaving. He wasn’t worried, just intrigued. It was unusual for the droid to ignore him this long. Zeb shrugged it off. Maybe Chopper fell into a hole; there was nothing that he could have done to help. Hera could find him later.

But then a shout from someone outside grabbed Zeb’s attention completely. He heard distraught sounds from what had to be Chopper and then shouting again, followed by two blaster shots. Zeb grabbed his Bo-rifle and ran out of the ship. 

He saw Chopper pushing something white in the tall grass surrounding them. “Oi, Chopper, what have you got there?”

Chopper answered in his triumphant call and revealed to Zeb an unconscious stormtrooper. Zeb raised a brow before nudging the body. “You did this?” The droid made a flexing motion with his arms before circling around the trooper. “I’m impressed.”

Zeb handed his Bo-rifle to Chopper before grabbing a leg of the trooper. He started dragging the body away when he noticed something odd about the grass. In about a twenty-foot radius around the ship, the grass was all indented. It was the perfect size for a droid like Chopper to fit. Shaking his head, he hid the body and made his way back to the droid. 

“Come on, Chop, let’s see how long till those who abandoned us are back,” Zeb said, smiling down at the droid. Chopper said something that must have been rude and charged off into the Phantom. With a sigh, Zeb followed him.

Hera.

Zeb and Chopper were at the dejarik table, halfway through a game, when Hera came into the common area. She smiled at the two before saying, “Sorry Chopper, but I need you to run a diagnostic on the Ghost. You can finish your game later.”

“He won’t need to,” Zeb said, laughing. “He was going to lose anyway.”

The droid made a rude response before rolling out of the room. Hera watched him leave and sighed. She rubbed her eyes for a few seconds before Zeb asked, “Do you want to play a round?”

She shook her hand and Zeb frowned. He had spent enough years with Hera to know something was up. But he also knew that he shouldn’t butt in every time he figured there was something. He hadn’t figured out yet if this was a butt in or not moment. 

With how things went on Ryloth, it was hard to tell where Hera stood. He knew she was easily the strongest of them all, so even losing her childhood home wouldn’t bring her down. But he also knew that wounds could take time to come to the surface. Zeb knew what it was like to leave wounds to fester.

Hera sat down at the table and drummed her fingers for a minute, before pulling out a datapad to review whatever mission they had coming up, or something they may have done wrong in the past. Zeb wondered how often Hera spent her time reviewing their lives, their pasts. All for the sake of them having a future. He watched her read and plan and think.

The minutes ticked by and finally Zeb sighed. Whether or not this was a time to stay silent, he was going to say something. She might not want it, but Zeb was sure she needed it.

“Hera,” Zeb said. Hera looked up, eyebrows raised. “What’s bothering you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was her quick response. She put the datapad down and studied him. “I’m just going over my mission reports.”

“Hera, I’ve known you long enough to know when something’s bothering you. I might not be Kanan,” Zeb explained, shrugging, “but I still know you pretty well.”

She didn’t say anything right away. Her fingers traced around the edge of the datapad and her eyes drifted. Zeb sat patiently; he had made his offer and could only wait. They sat there—him watching her while she was looking anywhere else. 

“Look, you don’t have to answer me,” he said. Zeb put his hands on his knees and started to stand. If he had gone too far he wanted to give her the space she’d need. “But don’t deny there’s something bothering you. And you can talk to me if you need to.” 

Finally, Hera looked back at him. He stayed in front of his chair and she motioned for him to sit down again.

“I feel guilty saying this to you. It sounds… selfish, I guess,” she admitted. Zeb smiled encouragingly at her and sat back down, inviting her to continue. “I don’t regret any of my decisions. I stand by how I handled getting my home away from the Empire, but a part of me feels like I’m losing Ryloth.”

Hera sighed. “It’s not fair for me to say this to you, with what happened on Lasan. I haven’t lost Ryloth; I still have my father and a community there. And I have all of you, my family. But there are time where it does feel like Ryloth and my people are slipping away because I chose the greater rebellion.”

Reaching over, Zeb placed his hand on Hera’s. She smiled faintly before placing her free on over the purple one. “You have nothing to feel guilty about,” he said. “What happened to my people, to Lasan, I’m at peace with it. You all helped me get there.”

Hera’s smile grew as she listened to him talk. He squeezed her hand and continued, “I wouldn’t want you to go through anything close to what happened to me. But I understand your worries—I think we all do. You don’t have to hide your feelings from us.”

Shaking her head, Hera patted the hand on hers. “When did you get so wise, Zeb? I seem to remember you just wanted to fight bucket heads all the time.”

Zeb grinned. “It must be all these Jedi running around, they start rubbing off on you after awhile.”

Ezra.

The crew of the Ghost made their way through the streets of Kothal. It was time to refill their supplies and Hera decided that maybe it would be for the best if they all went. Zeb was sure it was just a cover to keep an eye on him and Ezra but he wasn’t complaining, it was nice when the six of them were able to relax as a group. He was also glad that Ezra was finally off the Ghost for the first time since he and Kanan returned from their fight with the Inquisitor. Not that Zeb ever had voiced this.

The supply run was going faster than Zeb expected it to, despite the amount of food and equipment they needed to restock on. Hera and Kanan went through the list quickly, haggling when they could, and handed the supplies off to the rest of them. Ezra complained for the majority of it, but especially so when he was handed a large crate. Sabine and Zeb shared a look when Kanan turned back at his Padawan.

“You asked to come along,” he said, grinning.

“Yeah, as company, not as a some sort of pack droid,” Ezra grumbled. Chopper made an indignant sound before running into his leg. Ezra tried to kick the droid away from him.

Hera shook her head and turned around as well. “Ezra, you knew you’d have to help.”

“Let me shop with you, make Kanan carry this,” the boy said. He held the crate out to his teacher who sighed. Taking it out of his hands, Kanan rested it against his hip.

“We shouldn’t indulge him,” Hera said, shaking her head again, a smile appearing.

“You’re not indulging me, just… reassigning me,” Ezra responded, shrugging. 

Zeb rolled his eyes and pushed Ezra’s shoulder. “Yeah, at your request.”

Ezra smirked and trotted up next to Hera, taking the datapad from her. The group made their way through the street markets. Ezra was smiling and laughing, though Zeb noticed the boy kept looking around as if he were waiting for something. He didn’t worry too much about it; he figured it was nerves after everything Ezra had been through. Zeb was pretty sure they were all a little on edge.

They stopped at a stand for droid parts, at Chopper’s request, and Zeb decided to wait outside the stand. It would have been too crowded of the six of them and their supplies to stand there together. All the crates were stacked along the side with Zeb sitting on one. He watched the groups of people walk by: locals, off-worlders, and the occasional Imperial officer.  
Zeb’s mind was wandering when he noticed someone small and orange, no… dressed in orange, slip away into the crowd.

“Ezra?” he muttered under his breath. He glanced at the group at the stall to make sure he was just seeing things. But no, it was Ezra he saw slip off. Getting to his feet, Zeb made off in the direction he saw the kid go in and thought about how he was going to drag him back to Kanan and Hera.

Down one alley and then another, Zeb did his best to keep up with Ezra. For someone so small it was unfair how quickly he could move. Just when he was sure he had lost him, Zeb turned a corner and almost ran into his target.

“Why are you following me?” Ezra demanded, putting his hands on his hips.

“Why?” Zeb repeated, raising a brow. “Because you snuck off!”

“Look, just go back to everyone else, I’ll meet you back on the Ghost.”

“I don’t think so, kid,” Zeb answered, crossing his arms in return. The two started at each other for a long minute before Zeb grabbed his comlink. “Hey, Kanan.”

“ _Zeb, where are you? You left all our supplies unguarded; you’re lucky nothing got stolen! And now Ezra is missing!_ ” Kanan’s voice rang loudly through the comm. 

Ezra tried to reach for the comlink but missed as Zeb stood up straighter. As the boy glared at him, Zeb replied, “It’s okay, Kanan. I found Ezra.”

“ _Good! Bring him back here!_ ” Kanan shouted. 

Zeb looked down at Ezra who was now shaking his head. His hands were gripping the straps of his knapsack tightly. He sighed. “Sorry, Kanan,” Zeb answered, not believing his own words, “but Ezra wants to show me something. We’ll meet you back to the ship.”

“What? I don’t want you coming with me!” Ezra groaned. He turned away and started down the alley again. Zeb chuckled and started to follow. “I want you to go back now.”

“Tough.”

Ezra kicked a stone but kept moving, not putting up a fight at all. They made their way through the town, moving farther and farther from the market. Zeb watched the quickness in Ezra’s steps. There was urgency there. He wondered where exactly they were headed.

Finally, Ezra stopped in front of an old rundown house. Zeb studied the building and was about to ask if this was some sort of hideout for the boy when a group of children peered out from the door-less doorway. They varied in age; some were definitely as old as Ezra, some seemed to be significantly younger (Zeb had trouble guessing how old human children were). 

With one final glare at the Lasat, Ezra pulled his bag off his pack and walked over to the group. “I brought some rations and a handful of bacta patches. It isn’t a lot, I can’t take too much, but it’s something.”

Zeb watched one of the older girls skip over, a smile spread wide across her face. She accepted the gift and the peered over at him. 

“Don’t worry about the purple guy, he’s with me. Like my bodyguard or something,” Ezra said, smirking back. 

Rolling his eyes, Zeb moved forward and offered a hand to the girl. Smiling still, she shook the hand while trying not to drop any of the gift and then darted back into the rundown house. The other children had come out and were starting up a conversation with Ezra. 

They spent around an hour with the kids. Ezra talked to those who were his age and the younger ones decided that Zeb was something they had to climb. Zeb was on the ground laughing when he noticed a smile on Ezra’s face as one of the teens cracked a joke. 

Good.

On the walk back, they were both subdued. They had let the rest of the crew know their ETA and were in no real rush (Ezra was still trying to get out of helping with the grocery shopping it seemed). 

Once they were outside of the city, Zeb looked down at the boy. “So,” he started, “how long has that been going on?”

Ezra shrugged and readjusted the straps of his knapsack. There was no response for a few steps. But then, “I don’t know. Maybe a month after you guys found me.”

Zeb shook his head. They had started rubbing off on Ezra a lot faster than he thought they had. A month in and the “survival of the fittest” mentality was gone. 

“Well, next time let me know,” Zeb said.

“I don’t need your help! I’m doing fine on my own!” Ezra insisted. 

“Of course you do,” he answered. He wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders and proceeded to give the boy a noogie, messing up the already very messy hair. “I’m more than twice your size, I can carry more.”

Ezra squirmed in Zeb’s grasp, laughing and trying to kick himself free.

Back on the Ghost, Zeb explained to Hera and Kanan in private about where they had been. It was agreed that they would let Ezra take more supplies to his friends next time. Ezra was allowed his own missions, but there was nothing that said they couldn’t help.


End file.
